Religious Right Attack on Public Education - Atheist Nexus2018-02-18T05:40:24Zhttp://atheistnexus.org/forum/topics/religious-right-attack-on-public-education?xg_source=activity&feed=yes&xn_auth=nothis letter does a better job…tag:atheistnexus.org,2012-08-08:2182797:Comment:20248152012-08-08T17:14:10.702Zmatthew greenberghttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/matthewgreenberg
<p>this letter does a better job of explaining what is wrong with the Voucher approach than i could ever do. it is from C. Welton Gaddy, a Baptist minister and President of the Interfaith Alliance. read it and weap (for our future): </p>
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<p>August 7, 2012</p>
<p>The Honorable Bobby Jindal</p>
<p>Office of the Governor of Louisiana</p>
<p>P.O. Box 94004</p>
<p>Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9004</p>
<p>Dear Governor Jindal:</p>
<p>I write to you as the President of Interfaith Alliance…</p>
<p>this letter does a better job of explaining what is wrong with the Voucher approach than i could ever do. it is from C. Welton Gaddy, a Baptist minister and President of the Interfaith Alliance. read it and weap (for our future): </p>
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<p>August 7, 2012</p>
<p>The Honorable Bobby Jindal</p>
<p>Office of the Governor of Louisiana</p>
<p>P.O. Box 94004</p>
<p>Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9004</p>
<p>Dear Governor Jindal:</p>
<p>I write to you as the President of Interfaith Alliance to express my disappointment, concern and indeed, outrage at the school voucher program you have implemented in the state of Louisiana. Not only do I represent this national organization whose members come together from 75 faith traditions and belief systems to protect religious freedom, champion individual rights, and promote policies that protect both religion and democracy, I also serve as Senior Pastor for Preaching and Worship at Northminster (Baptist) Church in Monroe, and thus, I am one of your constituents. Your school voucher scheme is bad for religious freedom and bad for public education as well as a blatant attack on the religious freedom clauses in the United States Constitution.</p>
<p>Thankfully, thoughtful educators, concerned citizens, and media representatives in the state are exposing your ruthless attack on public education — the provision that the founders of our nation considered essential to the survival of our democracy. You seem unable to distinguish between religious indoctrination and basic public education. Though Interfaith Alliance is a non-litigious agency, we are encouraging other agencies to file suits challenging your decision to use public tax dollars to build structures for churches across the state and to fund educational curricula that qualify more as a catechism than as a tool for holistic education. Of course, you flaunted your disregard for government-subsidized religion by choosing a Roman Catholic Church as the venue at which to sign your legislation!</p>
<p>When in 1785 the state of Virginia considered a bill that would fund “Teachers of the Christian Religion,” James Madison penned his famous remonstrance reminding his contemporaries, and indeed, generations to come, that “it is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be acceptable to him.” Put another way, funding, participating in, and sending our children to religious education programs is the right and responsibility of faith communities, clergy, and parents as they see fit — not of our government. Every American also has an equal right to choose not to fund or participate in religious education.</p>
<p>Your voucher program also will fund private schools and curricula that are inevitably not up to the standards of quality information of public schools, and fund the teaching of theology, which goes against the fundamentals of our religious freedom. I was appalled to learn that private schools—funded with my taxes—will teach our children that evolution does not exist, using the fabled Loch Ness Monster as a “real” example, from textbooks that state:</p>
<p>“God created each type of fish, amphibian, and reptile as separate, unique animals. Any similarities that exist among them are due to the fact that one Master Craftsmen fashioned them all.”</p>
<p>Let me be clear: I am not appalled that a Christian school is teaching its students that God created the Earth. Children in my church learn that every Sunday. I am appalled that these schools are teaching theology as science; and they’re doing so with government money, my tax dollars. Teaching the theology of Creationism is part of the mission of religious schools, and religious education more broadly—I defend with my life’s work their right to teach future generations about their faith. But they should not receive financial support from our government to do so.</p>
<p>What often gets lost in the conversation around school vouchers is the negative impact they can have on religious schools. In the short term, having new revenue streams is of course helpful to private schools, but the fact is that with government money comes government regulation, which can open religious schools up to all kinds of threats to their autonomy that it is in religion’s best interest to avoid. Furthermore, public education is often called the “great equalizer,” and right now, our nation is at a place in history in which all of us truly need to learn how to get along with each other and work together for the good of our nation despite our differences in religion, ethnicity, race, and income. Besides preparing our children and young people to be proficient in math, science, grammar, thinking, and communication skills, public education has no greater role than enabling us to work and walk together despite obvious diversity. Many of the private schools in Louisiana that you are supporting with millions of dollars of vouchers are honestly saying upfront that their mission is sectarian education that promotes one faith over another and makes no effort to commend the common good.</p>
<p>Finally, one of the central problems with school voucher programs could not be on clearer display than it is in Louisiana: Vouchers create competition between religious groups for government funds, and put the government in a position to prefer one over another. A case in point is the reason state Rep. Valarie Hodges changed her position on the school voucher program. I wish that I could celebrate this move, and had she decided to no longer support it because she realized how harmful such funding is to our religious freedom, I would have. Instead, she changed her position on vouchers because she found out that not only Christian groups received the funding, but Muslim groups can too. As a former Hindu—a minority religion in this nation—you, as much as anyone in our state, should be fully aware that herein lies one of the many problems with funneling government money to religious groups. By doing so, the government can (or at least can try) to pick and choose between them -- exactly the situation our founders created the First Amendment to avoid.</p>
<p>In short, the school vouchers system you have allowed to be implemented in our state embodies everything that is wrong with school vouchers as a whole and threatens the integrity of both religion and government. I hope that you will take a step back and see that what you are doing is propelling education in Louisiana back to a level that will decrease even more our abominable ranking when it comes to education in our nation. You are hurting the state, the education of our children, and broadsiding an affront to the values of religious freedom that most of us hold dear.</p>
<p>I am incapable of and uninterested in judging your motivations for such a destruction of education in our state. But, you are capable of changing your mind and helping the situation rather than hurting it. Governor Jindal, please, for the sake of all that is good about education, religious freedom, and our state, put an end to the school vouchers program in Louisiana.</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>C. Welton Gaddy</p> http://www.philly.com/philly/…tag:atheistnexus.org,2012-06-26:2182797:Comment:19909442012-06-26T17:29:50.373Zmatthew greenberghttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/matthewgreenberg
<p><a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20120626_Big_money_behind_push_for_education_tax_credit_program.html" target="_blank">http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20120626_Big_money_behind_push_for_education_tax_credit_program.html</a></p>
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<p>great article about tax credits possibly going to Catholic schools in PA ($75M). and soon too. this is another example of tax payer money going to religious organizations. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20120626_Big_money_behind_push_for_education_tax_credit_program.html" target="_blank">http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20120626_Big_money_behind_push_for_education_tax_credit_program.html</a></p>
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<p>great article about tax credits possibly going to Catholic schools in PA ($75M). and soon too. this is another example of tax payer money going to religious organizations. </p> here's a couple more links th…tag:atheistnexus.org,2012-06-20:2182797:Comment:19868372012-06-20T16:46:48.307Zmatthew greenberghttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/matthewgreenberg
<p>here's a couple more links that are noteworthy:</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/06/19/shocking_christian_school_textbooks/" target="_blank">http://www.salon.com/2012/06/19/shocking_christian_school_textbooks/</a></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/6/27/151131/081" target="_blank">http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/6/27/151131/081</a></p>
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<p>in the video on the second link, it describes the school choice movement as an "end around" to…</p>
<p>here's a couple more links that are noteworthy:</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/06/19/shocking_christian_school_textbooks/" target="_blank">http://www.salon.com/2012/06/19/shocking_christian_school_textbooks/</a></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/6/27/151131/081" target="_blank">http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/6/27/151131/081</a></p>
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<p>in the video on the second link, it describes the school choice movement as an "end around" to secular education. i'm definitely starting to think there's something to all of this, whether it's money, religion, unions, or all of the above. </p> it's a truism talked about al…tag:atheistnexus.org,2012-06-19:2182797:Comment:19861672012-06-19T19:45:56.532ZJim DePaulohttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/carver
<blockquote><p>it's a truism talked about all the time. Quite a few studies have found it not to be the determining factor in a school's success.</p>
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<p>Links to those studies?</p>
<blockquote><p>Finally in NJ the union is acknowledging (in their TV ads, anyhow) that we need enforceable performance standards for teachers. What took them so long?</p>
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<p>What took WHO so long ? Teachers (I was one for 30 years) have long contended that they are more qualified in…</p>
<blockquote><p>it's a truism talked about all the time. Quite a few studies have found it not to be the determining factor in a school's success.</p>
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<p>Links to those studies?</p>
<blockquote><p>Finally in NJ the union is acknowledging (in their TV ads, anyhow) that we need enforceable performance standards for teachers. What took them so long?</p>
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<p>What took WHO so long ? Teachers (I was one for 30 years) have long contended that they are more qualified in judging a teacher's preformance than is the occasional observation by an administrator. Administrators and school boards have universally dismissed that option. If a peer review and evaluation team of teachers had the authority to design a strategy for teacher improvement or determination for removing unqualified teachers, true improvement of tescher quality would be achieved. Many European school systems use that method successfully.</p>
<p>Those that bloviate about teacher quality are rarely (if ever) teachers and their opinions, for the most part, are useless.</p> I think it IS potentially an…tag:atheistnexus.org,2012-06-19:2182797:Comment:19858142012-06-19T15:15:19.546ZLoren Millerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/LorenMiller
<p>I think it IS potentially an effort to dumb-down America ... and the way to fight it is to CALL THEM ON IT any time this strategy is tried! Teachers succeeded in Pennsylvania with <em>Kitzmiller v. Dover</em>, but failed in Tennessee, likely either because of apathy or a lack of organization on the part of those who value science.</p>
<p>One of the few wise things that come out of the bible is: "everyone who loves evil hates the light." Well, let's SHINE A LIGHT and do NOT let them skate…</p>
<p>I think it IS potentially an effort to dumb-down America ... and the way to fight it is to CALL THEM ON IT any time this strategy is tried! Teachers succeeded in Pennsylvania with <em>Kitzmiller v. Dover</em>, but failed in Tennessee, likely either because of apathy or a lack of organization on the part of those who value science.</p>
<p>One of the few wise things that come out of the bible is: "everyone who loves evil hates the light." Well, let's SHINE A LIGHT and do NOT let them skate on this!</p> congratulations on your succe…tag:atheistnexus.org,2012-06-19:2182797:Comment:19858592012-06-19T13:20:00.629Zmatthew greenberghttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/matthewgreenberg
<p>congratulations on your successes, Melinda. however they came about. it surprises me that many Atheists also homeschool. </p>
<p>congratulations on your successes, Melinda. however they came about. it surprises me that many Atheists also homeschool. </p> are you positing that this is…tag:atheistnexus.org,2012-06-19:2182797:Comment:19858572012-06-19T13:18:18.623Zmatthew greenberghttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/matthewgreenberg
<p>are you positing that this is a concerted effort to dumb down America? or are you just throwing this out as a potential hypothesis? </p>
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<p>i'm not sure there's much we can do to stop them. suggestions?</p>
<p>are you positing that this is a concerted effort to dumb down America? or are you just throwing this out as a potential hypothesis? </p>
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<p>i'm not sure there's much we can do to stop them. suggestions?</p> Franny, you may be right. mo…tag:atheistnexus.org,2012-06-19:2182797:Comment:19859382012-06-19T13:15:59.916Zmatthew greenberghttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/matthewgreenberg
<p>Franny, you may be right. money could be the biggest reason, and the Religious are an easy group to bring along for support. </p>
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<p>so if money is the end game, is there any chance this is good for education? could privatization be a better option than public education?</p>
<p>Franny, you may be right. money could be the biggest reason, and the Religious are an easy group to bring along for support. </p>
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<p>so if money is the end game, is there any chance this is good for education? could privatization be a better option than public education?</p> This post couples very tightl…tag:atheistnexus.org,2012-06-18:2182797:Comment:19853782012-06-18T20:42:19.025ZLoren Millerhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/LorenMiller
<p>This post couples very tightly with your commentary about facts not mattering any more, certainly as it comes to the attempts by religious organizations to interfere with public education. The more informed and thorough public education becomes, the more it comes into conflict with religious ideology and particularly with the more radical and orthodox of those ideologies. Naturally, religion will want to weaken or modify school curricula to more closely reflect their values. If this…</p>
<p>This post couples very tightly with your commentary about facts not mattering any more, certainly as it comes to the attempts by religious organizations to interfere with public education. The more informed and thorough public education becomes, the more it comes into conflict with religious ideology and particularly with the more radical and orthodox of those ideologies. Naturally, religion will want to weaken or modify school curricula to more closely reflect their values. If this action compromises the teaching of verified fact ... well, you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs.</p>
<p>The same may be said for political ideology. Those who wish to take advantage for their own gain do not want a politically informed electorate and will either work to remove funding or steer course syllabi toward their own philosophy. When the general populace are disengaged from their children or see school as little more than daytime baby-sitting, they can get away with this all too easily, as can the religious zealots. If not ... well, they've got a problem.</p>
<p>Can we please see to it that they have a SERIOUS PROBLEM?</p> Agreed Franny. Now that the w…tag:atheistnexus.org,2012-06-18:2182797:Comment:19851022012-06-18T20:12:01.246Zannethttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/AnneT
<p>Agreed Franny. Now that the wars are dying down, they need some new cash cows. With prisons firmly in hand, they come for the schools. Look at the job they've done with health care/big pharma, banking, energy and food. Why do we keep thinking privatizing leads to success? Because the koch brothers tell us so. Success for a few and a mess for the rest.</p>
<p>Agreed Franny. Now that the wars are dying down, they need some new cash cows. With prisons firmly in hand, they come for the schools. Look at the job they've done with health care/big pharma, banking, energy and food. Why do we keep thinking privatizing leads to success? Because the koch brothers tell us so. Success for a few and a mess for the rest.</p>